Rams & Lady Rams T&F team competes against time

Weather doesn't cooperate with scheduled events

January 11, 2024 at 2:05 a.m.

John Delcid (left) is a senior Track & Field team captain who specializes in hurdles and sprints. He is also a team motivator. (File Photo/Westmore News)

Time is of the essence in all things, but it is especially so in Track & Field (T&F) where a fraction of a second can mean the difference between winning and losing. And that essence is especially meaningful to the Port Chester indoor winter T&F team because circumstances have left them shortchanged when it comes to meaningful competition—their latest multi-team event at the Armory in NYC this past Sunday (1/7) was canceled due to weather concerns.

That means the local T&F athletes, the unsung heroes and heroines of scholastic sports hereabouts, have essentially been competing against themselves as time flies by during outdoor training in all kinds of weather because Westchester, one of the richest counties in the nation, does not have an indoor training facility of its own designed to host events during the winter season.

Hard core training

But the Rams and Lady Rams keep training nonetheless with a hard core of nearly 100 student-athletes working hard to keep improving under coaches with more than 100 years of combined experience. Head Rams coach Nick Mancuso, for example, has 27 years of experience while Lady Rams head coach Gary Gibbs has 10 with both being physical education instructors in the Port Chester School District. Volunteer distance coach Hank Birdsall (a cancer survivor, retired social studies teacher and former Green Beret combat veteran) has 47, Chris Halstead (also the football coach and a Middle School history teacher) has three and Jen Lopez, a high school English teacher, is starting her first year as a T&F mentor.

So they have the knowhow and motivational ability to keep the team on their collective toes with the help of inspirational senior team captains including the Rams former football captain John Delcid (a sprinter and hurdler) and middle distance runners Jonathan Abrams and Alejandro Salinas and their Lady Rams counterparts including sprinters Alexandra and Elisabeth Cruz, shot putter Maria Garcia and former tennis ace Casey Schultz.

Keeping the team ready, willing and able to go full speed ahead is an important factor because the last real competition Port Chester has had was the traditional Kickoff Meet in early December at the 168th St. Regiment Armory in NYC.

Last measuring rod

So that is the measuring rod that gave the team something to shoot for in the running and field events.

In that Kickoff Meet (12/4), junior football running back Marc Aidens Dorsainvil emerged as the fastest Ram clocking 7:94 in the 55-meter sprint, Abraham and Arturo Orozco hit the best times in the 1600 meters (the metric equivalent of a mile run) in 5:24.44 and 5:24.51 and Salinas had the Rams’ top finishing time in the 1,000 meters (3:08.35).

John Pauletti, the heart and soul of the Rams football team as an athlete who has overcome multiple heath problems (including a mysterious heart ailment), came through as the boys’ best field event performer with a shotput throw of 34:10.50 while the 4x100-meter relay of Salinas, Abraham, Arturo Orozco and Chris Zamora impressed by hitting the finish line with a speedy 10:09.17 clocking.

Speedy Lady Rams

For the Lady Rams, Schultz ran the fastest time in the 55-meter sprint clocking 8:20 while close behind her came Liz Cruz (8:29), Dynasty O'Neill (8:43) and Juliana Castillo (8:52). Alexandra Cruz ran the team's fastest 600-meter time (2:02.57), Chenoa Marquez and Alexa Aguiriano were the top middle distance runners (3:57.28 and 4:07.07 for the 1,000 meters) and Garcia and Kimberly Maldonado were the leading shot putters (22:8 and 22 flat respectively).

The fastest Lady Rams relay runners included Alexandra Cruz, Marquez, Katheryn Espinosa and Mayerlin Torres in the 4x800-meter event with the quartet finishing in 13:09.17 while the 4x200-meter relay finished in 2:05.41 running with a foursome consisting of Schultz, Liz Cruz, O'Neill and Castillo. Other solid times came in the grueling 600 meters, a combination of sprint and middle-distance running, with the speedy Lady Rams top finishers including Torres (2:14.81), Camila Ramos (2:24.54), Kayley Martinez (2:28.41) and Espinosa (2:29.75).

But even as they await the next Armory date in NYC, the Rams and Lady Rams keep practicing although they are essentially competing against themselves and their own best times.